A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device is comprised of two ferromagnetic layers separated by a thin insulating tunnel barrier layer and is based on the phenomenon of spin-polarized electron tunneling. One of the ferromagnetic layers has a higher saturation field in one direction of an applied magnetic field, typically due to its higher coercivity than the other ferromagnetic layer. The insulating tunnel barrier layer is thin enough that quantum mechanical tunneling occurs between the ferromagnetic layers. The tunneling phenomenon is electron-spin dependent, making the magnetic response of the MTJ a function of the relative orientations and spin polarizations of the two ferromagnetic layers.
MTJ devices have been proposed primarily as memory cells for solid state memory. The state of the MTJ memory cell is determined by measuring the resistance of the MTJ when a sense current is passed perpendicularly through the MTJ from one ferromagnetic layer to the other. The probability of tunneling of charge carriers across the insulating tunnel barrier layer depends on the relative alignment of the magnetic moments (magnetization directions) of the two ferromagnetic layers. The tunneling current is spin polarized, which means that the electrical current passing from one of the ferromagnetic layers, for example, a layer whose magnetic moment is fixed or prevented from rotation, is predominantly composed of electrons of one spin type (spin up or spin down, depending on the orientation of the magnetic moment of the ferromagnetic layer). The degree of spin polarization of the tunneling current is determined by the electronic band structure of the magnetic material comprising the ferromagnetic layer at the interface of the ferromagnetic layer with the tunnel barrier layer. The first ferromagnetic layer thus acts as a spin filter. The probability of tunneling of the charge carriers depends on the availability of electronic states of the same spin polarization as the spin polarization of the electrical current in the second ferromagnetic layer. Usually, when the magnetic moment of the second ferromagnetic layer is parallel to the magnetic moment of the first ferromagnetic layer, there are more available electronic states than when the magnetic moment of the second ferromagnetic layer is aligned antiparallel to that of the first ferromagnetic layer. Thus, the tunneling probability of the charge carriers is highest when the magnetic moments of both layers are parallel, and is lowest when the magnetic moments are antiparallel. When the moments are arranged neither parallel nor antiparallel, the tunneling probability takes an intermediate value. Thus, the electrical resistance of the MTJ memory cell depends on both the spin polarization of the electrical current and the electronic states in both of the ferromagnetic layers. As a result, the two possible magnetization directions of the ferromagnetic layer whose magnetization direction is not fixed uniquely define two possible bit states (0 or 1) of the memory cell.
A magnetoresistive (MR) sensor detects magnetic field signals through the resistance changes of a sensing element, fabricated of a magnetic material, as a function of the strength and direction of magnetic flux being sensed by the sensing element. Conventional MR sensors, such as those used as a MR read heads for reading data in magnetic recording disk drives, operate on the basis of the anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) effect of the bulk magnetic material, which is typically permalloy (Ni.sub.81 Fe.sub.19). A component of the read element resistance varies as the square of the cosine of the angle between the magnetization direction in the read element and the direction of sense current through the read element. Recorded data can be read from a magnetic medium, such as the disk in a disk drive, because the external magnetic field from the recorded magnetic medium (the signal field) causes a change in the direction of magnetization in the read element, which in turn causes a change in resistance of the read element and a corresponding change in the sensed current or voltage. In conventional MR read heads, in contrast to MTJ devices, the sense current is in a direction parallel to the ferromagnetic layer of the read element.
The use of an MTJ device as a magnetoresistive read head for magnetic recording is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,061. In this MTJ read head, the electrical sense current to the MTJ device is applied by means of electrical conductors in the form of thin metal layers located above and below the MTJ device. These conductors typically have thicknesses of several hundred Angstroms. Typically the magnetoresistive (MR) read elements are placed between thick highly permeable magnetic layers or shields from which the conductors must be electrically insulated by means of non-electrically conducting layers of sufficient thickness, as shown in FIG. 10 of the '061 patent. For high areal density magnetic recording applications the size of the MR read head and related components have to be decreased as the size of the magnetic bits in which information is stored is decreased. In particular the thickness of the spacing between the magnetic shields, between which the MR read head is typically located, must be reduced in thickness to enable the MR read head to sense magnetic bits with decreased bit lengths. The thickness of the MTJ device and conducting leads and insulating layers cannot be made indefinitely smaller and thus a limit to the maximum possible areal density will eventually be reached. IBM's U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,410 describes an MTJ MR read head with longitudinal biasing wherein the MTJ device has electrical leads that connect to the MR sense circuitry. The leads are in contact with insulating gap material and the gap material is in contact with the magnetic shields so that the leads are electrically insulated from the shields.
What is needed is an MR read head with an MTJ device including its sense leads that can be made sufficiently thin to achieve high areal density by reducing the spacing between the magnetic shields.